Dwarf Duck-Billed Dinosaur Had a Facial Tumor

About 69 million years ago, a duck-billed dinosaur dwarf walked around with a tumor on its lower jaw. Though it is an unusual growth, it likely didn't cause any pain.

Same type of noncancerous facial tumor found in some modern reptiles and mammals, including humans, were found in a fossil animal. The Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus, an early duck-billed dinosaur also known as a hardrosaur, was found to have a tumor on its face.

Telmatosaurus is known to be close to the root of the duck-billed dinosaur family tree. Accoriding to the study's co-author, Kate Acheson, the presence of such deformity provides a further evidence that the duck-billed dinosaurs were more prone to tumors than other dinosaurs.

The fossils were found in western Romania in the "Valley of the Dinosaurs," which is part of a World Heritage site honored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The research team used a micro-computerized tomography (CT) scanner to take a look into the Telmatosaurus' jawbone without breaking it. The result showed that the dinosaur had ameloblastoma, a benign, noncancerous growth that affects the jaws.

An illustration showing a young dwarf duck-billed dinosaur Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus with a tumor on its lower left jaw. Credit: Mihai Dumbrav

Ameloblastoma on humans don't cause any serious pain, and so was on dinosaurs. But since the animal wasn't full-grown when it died, it's possible that the tumor somehow contributed to the dinosaur's death.

Since the researchers only found the animal's two lower jaws, it is still difficult to pinpoint the dinosaur's cause of death without examining the rest of its bones.

Finding evidence of tumors on dinosaur bones is rare, but no longer new. Researchers previously found two tumors on an individual titanosaur, a long-necked, long-tailed herbivorous giant, and on the duck-billed dinosaurs: Brachylophosaurus, Gilmoresaurus, Bactrosaurus and Edmontosaurus, as well as the carnivores Jurassic-age Dilophosaurus wetherili. However, none among those found tumors were located on the dinosaurs' faces.

The Study was published online in the journal Scientific Reports.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved.

Source: Seeker Live Science

Share It To Your Friends!

Loading...